Are we there yet....

Todays nightmare was the trip from Fiji onto Honolulu.  I think I was the only lucky one in that I got to have a few hours sleep.  The flight was just a little bit over 5 hours long before we had a 1 hour stopover from hell.  We were to have an hour layover at Kiribati at the township of Banana. It sounds like a lovely tropical spot but in reality it was hell.  

Flying in over Christmas Island

Kiribati coast

180 deg of the airport

Building number 2 - has a "VIP lounge" at the end

We deplaned at around about 6.30 am their time, which was a bit of a surprise considering the airport looked like a pair of the most primitive ramshackle chicken shacks ever.  To those who think I'm exaggerating check out the photo below.  No glass windows, they prefer chicken wire for the guests.  

At first we were happy enough to wait in the holding pen at the side of the tarmac, but then prison guard number 1 directed us to the security checkpoint inside building number 1. 

"happy faces"

We thought she was joking as we had just got off a plane and couldn't think of why we would have to clear security again.  So in we went to have our hand luggage rifled through.  The boys got scanned with a hand held scanner and I got taken to a little cubicle at the back to be manually patted down. Talk about deflating - for more than a few minutes we thought we were under house arrest.  Once we cleared the security room we were ushered into the holding pen. This was a tiny room, standing room only supposed to house 100+ people.  No air-conditioning and no fan for the 35 deg + temperature.  In fact, I don't even think there was power to the building at all.  I am not sure if the chicken wire window was the high point or the smell from the septic tank toilets wafting through the room.  We were locked in this room until the plane was ready to be re-boarded.

The cell

The onward flight to Hawaii was another 3 hours and by that stage the only one able to sleep was Nate. We arrived in Honolulu at about 11 am and made it through customs / immigration with no hassles at all.  Our Homeland Security dude was called Spangler and he took our fingerprints with a friendly chat which we found quite reassuring.  

Aqua Pacific Monarch

We had some very last minute issues with our hotel booking, which we had learned had been cancelled just before we took off from Fiji.  Id booked a new hotel just on price so we were a little nervous on what we would get.  Turned out I did well as the room was nice and it was a clean albeit basic hotel.  The pool is on the roof which is about 32 floors up so we have a fantastic view out over Waikiki Beach.

After a quick lunch at the coconut cafe we returned to our room for a nap for a few hours.  In the evening we went for a little walk to have a look at the beach.  Such a lovely beach, although Id argue that our beaches are equally as nice.  On the way back to the hotel we opted for the Mexican restaurant down the road called La Cucaracha.  Our server recommended the pork Carnitas which were amazingly good with the Margaritas we drank.

Mexican restaurant

Carnitas

Waikiki

Kuhio Park bordering the beach

Sunset at the beach